Political Quotes

“I suppose, unlike some of the debates we have here in this House, that the amazing thing about this debate is that the comments that our colleagues on the Republican side have made confirm all of our concerns about this measure. Indeed, they defend the principal sponsor of one of these measures to tax e-commerce. The gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Linder) defends the taxation of e-commerce as a new Federal revenue source. One of his principal supporters testifying in the committee indicated it would be a major source of future Federal revenue. No one, until this radical proposal was presented here in Congress, has proposed that the Federal Government should rely on e-commerce to finance the operations of the entire Federal Government. There has been considerable debate over whether there should even be State or local sales tax on e-commerce. That is a debate for another day. But the idea of imposing on top of State and local taxes a major Federal sales tax on all e-commerce is likely to have a devastating impact on e-commerce. These are young companies. These are start-up companies. Sometimes the true dream of American capitalism is that one can begin in a garage and grow to be a major part of the American economy. Those are the kinds of little companies that are out there that need to be given room to grow. Americans are finding as consumers that there are many opportunities offered through e-commerce.”